YouTube app returns to Windows Phone

Updated Microsoft has released another YouTube app into the Windows Phone store.

The release of an app may not seem noteworthy, save for the fact that back in May Google prepared a flaming sueball and threatened to heft it in Redmond's direction because its previous app allowed users to download videos and didn't play nicely with YouTube ads. That threat came after Microsoft threatened to fling sueballs at Google for blocking access to some APIs.

The two settled down enough to promise a joint effort on a legally-and-technically-acceptable app penned by Redmond.

That effort appears to have borne fruit in the form of this app released on Tuesday and attributing authorship to Microsoft. Google's not issued any statement on the new app, but it seems sensible to assume it approves of its functions.

Vulture South lacks a Windows Phone with which to test the app, which may be a good thing: users have posted comments like “Doesn't play a single damn video … Microsoft, get it together. Tired of this platform. WP7 worked better than this” among reviews for the new software. ®

Update

Oops! Looks like we spoke too soon. Mere hours after the latest iteration of Microsoft's YouTube app appeared in the Windows Phone Store, it disappeared again. And yet again, this was apparently at Google's request.

A Microsoft spokesperson told El Reg on Thursday, "Google is blocking our updated YouTube app for Windows Phone. We are working with them to resolve the issue."

When we asked Google for further clarification, a rep told us:

We're committed to providing users and creators with a great and consistent YouTube experience across devices, and we've been working with Microsoft to build a fully featured YouTube for Windows Phone app, based on HTML5. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not made the browser upgrades necessary to enable a fully-featured YouTube experience, and has instead re-released a YouTube app that violates our Terms of Service. It has been disabled. We value our broad developer community and therefore ask everyone to adhere to the same guidelines.

Presumably, this story is still far from over. We'll keep you updated as developments emerge.